The Ball is Round

Enough has been said about Barcelona but what about other Spanish league matters? Real Madrid have reinstalled Florentino Pérez as president. His first major move has been to replace Juande Ramos with Manuel Pellegrini. Ramos was going great guns with RM until the spectacular 6-2 collapse against Barcelona – the start of an extraordinary run of 5 consecutive league defeats which put paid to any hopes the former Spurs’ coach had of getting the job on a permanent basis.

The only surprising thing about the appointment of Pellegrini is that he has taken so long to get a job with one of Spanish football’s giants. The Chilean has had Villarreal playing great football for years and he deserves the chance to see what he can do with even better resources.

Barcelona will be joined in the Champions league once again by Sevilla and Atlético Madrid (assuming the latter get through the qualifiers). Villarreal will play in the UEFA along with Valencia who just held off the challenge of Deportivo La Coruña. The Galicians had a very good season after spending very little compared to the teams abovre them. Depor coach Lotina said it has been his most satisfying season as a manager despite achieving cup success and Champions League football with Espanyol and Celta respectively.

These two clubs have had contrasting ends to the season. Espanyol produced an amazing run of results towards the end of the season to finish mid-table after being bottom and looking doomed just a few short months ago. Their feat has been overshowed by their neighbours but Espanyol can now look forward to inagurating their new stadium (near Barcelona airport) in the top flight come September.

Espanyol's new stadium at Cornellà-Prat.

Celta on the other hand are in danger of freefall. The Spanish second division has a few weeks still to run and the Vigo club are in danger of slipping out of Spanish football’s second flight. They have a crucial game in Vigo against relegation rivals Alavés at the weekend and a win would go a long way towards helping Celta stay up. However, it looks very likely that one of these two clubs who were playing European football not so long ago will end up in the third division.

Whichever one survives the season will be joined in Segunda A by Real Betis. Looking at the permutations last weekend, it appeared very unlikely that the green and white giants from the banks of the Guadalquivir would go down, but results conspired against them and there will be no league derbies in Seville next season.

Betis will be joined in Segunda by Numancia and Recreativo with Xerez, Tenerife and Zaragoza looking likely to replace them among the elite.

*Ballis will probably be putting his feet up for the summer to watch some tennis and golf but might be tempted to write the odd post about the Scottish managerial merry-go-round or any other fun at the fair. Have a good summer!

Burnley are on their way to Wembley after comfortably disposing of Reading in the Championship play-offs. Nothing against Sheffield United but I’d like to see the Lancashire club return to England’s top flight. They haven’t been there since I was a little kid so I suppose my reasoning is partly nostalgic.

However, Owen Coyle appears to have done a fantastic job since he left Perth for England’s North West. He also has a number of Scottish players there: Graham Alexander, Steven Caldwell, Kevin McDonald and the injured Russell Anderson.

I haven’t seen Burnley play this season but I understand they are a good footballing side and look forward to watching the final. It should be an interesting game against Sheffield United who I thought looked quite powerful and direct in their deserved win over Preston.

I was also amused this week by the following clip featuring a disabled fan celebrating Alexander’s first leg penalty against Reading. It reminded me of an old Alf Garnett sketch and there is the added coincidence that both support teams that play in claret and blue.

There might be a Champions League semi final on tonight but I’ll be more interested in hearing the result of the SFA Youth Cup Final. Having clinched the league title last weekend, Hibs under-19's are going for the double.

Hibs face Rangers - the current holders of the trophy and finalists three years running. The Ibrox side are much criticised for not briniging through enough youngsters from their Murray Park complex. It would appear that the talent is there but Rangers generally have more readies available to dip into the transfer market for an established player rather than persevering with youngsters.

On the other hand, seven of tonight's Hibs squad have already been given new contracts and been told they will move up to join the first team next season. The question is when boss Mixu Paatelainen will give them a chance. My impression almost a year and a half into his tenure is that he prefers to sign and play seasoned journeymen ahead of some of his young talent.

But Ewan Moyes and Sean Welsh are a couple you might see in the Hibs first team over the next season or two. And Kurtis Byrne is a name that could feature soon in the SPL scoring charts. He’s the son of former Celtic player, Paul Byrne, and Hibs snapped him up from Norwich City a couple of years ago.

They might have to wait a while however, as slightly older Hibs players like Darren McCormack and Paul Hanlon are struggling to feature regularly for Hibs despite making the breakthrough into the Scotland under-21 squad.

It’s part of summer as sure as the days get longer. When the season is over and Scottish sports columns need to be filled up with football stories, we get talk of either an Atlantic League or the possibility of the Old Firm moving to the English leagues. Could the latter happen?

Well, I think it’s quite likely one day. Basically, where there’s a will there’s a way. It’s become quite clear over the years that it’s a proposition which leaves many associated with the Old Firm licking their chops.

The Scottish summer has come early this year and not just because of some decent weather. Bolton chairman Phil Gartside has raised the possibility of Celtic and Rangers joining a two-tier Premiership. UEFA have as good as said it is not their business and the matter will be discussed at the EPL’s annual general meeting in June.

The EPL doesn’t really need the Old Firm at the moment, but there will come a time when they look to spice things up and generate new interest. This would be one obvious way. It would seem that the possibility has a long way to go but if it does eventually happen where would that leave the SPL?

I was surprised to read in a poll in the Daily Record that currently says that almost 56% think that Scottish football would be better off if the Old Firm moved to England. First of all, we should be clear that many readers of the Daily Record are Old Firm fans. Are they voting yes simply because they wan the Old Firm to go to the EPL or do they really believe the rest of Scottish football would be better off without them?

Secondly, it has to be asked what is meant by better off? If they mean financially richer then I think the answer has to be a resounding No for current SPL clubs. Television and sponsorship money would be harder to come by and that’s almost bread and butter these days.

It might be more difficult to attract better players from outside the country as a few visits a season to the Ibrox and Celtic Park must be one of the big attractions of playing in Scotland. The shop window aspect of attracting a bigger club would also be somewhat reduced and even the odd Champions League qualifier isn’t likely to be that much of a carrot.

Leaving aside the politics of such a shakeup could affect the status of the national team, there are other respects in which the Scottish game would go on much as normal. For instance, many of Scotland’s better players have always ended up in Glasgow or England anyway, so what’s the difference there?

If by “better off” we mean more competitive and more interesting then I think that would be the case without a doubt. And some of the bigger remaining clubs: Aberdeen, Dundee United, Hearts, Hibs (and possibly two or three others on the odd occasion), might be able to call upon healthy crowds because they could challenge for the league championship. It might also leave the door open for league reconstruction and a return to a bigger league. Top flight football could help clubs like Dundee, St. Johnstone, Partick Thistle, Dunfermline, Morton and Livingston or Queen of the South.

Last night Deportivo lost 1-2 to fellow UEFA Cup candidates – Atlético Madrid. The final scoreline did not reflect the superiority of the visitors despite Depor almost snatching an undeserved point with a late rally.

When you look at the quality Atlético have in their ranks you’d have to say that even qualifying for the UEFA would be a failure. They should at least be pushing for a Champions League place. One two was the story of the night with Kun Agüero exchanging passes with Forlan to score a tidy opener just before half-time. Kun then set up Simao for a second which had Atlético on easy street. A late Bodipo header left the Madrid side hanging on again in a match which they should have put to bed much earlier.

One player in the visiting line-up who will be happy to return to a quieter role and let the likes of Kun and Forlan resume the headlines is the Czech defender Ujfalusi. The (former) Czech captain was involved in a scandal following his country’s 2-1 defeat to arch rival Slovakia. He and five other members of the squad, including Milan Baros, were photographed in compromising positions with prostitutes in a Prague restaurant.

Imagine the reaction in Scotland if Barry Ferguson and Co were caught cavorting with floozies in a Glasgow restaurant in the immediate aftermath of a home defeat to England. Doesn’t really bear thinking about, does it?

Andrés Guardado looked as lively in the first 45 minutes as he has done for a while but his final ball was wanting. Kun (also pictured*) was the player with the cutting edge at Riazor last night.

*Pic by Ballis ©2009

Deportivo produced one of the most astonishing European comebacks of recent years. After losing the first leg of their Champions League Quarter Final by 4-1 in Milan, Super Depor needed to defeat a star-studded AC Milan side by four goals - and did. Only three players who played against Milan that night remain with Deportivo: Manuel Pablo, Sergio and Valerón, the scorer of the second goal here.

Glancing at the list of the last 16 clubs in the UEFA Cup, it’s interesting to see only one club from England (Man. C), one from Italy (Udinese), and no Spanish representation at all. After last season’s UEFA Cup final between Zenit St. Petersburg and Glasgow Rangers, I asked whether, bar the elite three or four clubs, Europe’s so-called top leagues are so great after all. Not many would consider the Ukranian league to be among Europe’s strongest, but they have no less than three clubs in the last 16: Dynamo Kiev, Shaktar Donetsk and Metalist Kharkiv. There are also two Russian sides: CSKA Moscow and the current holders Zenit. The Bundesliga, which is also widely considered to be one of Europe’s strongest leagues, still has Werder Bremen and Hamburg in the competition, while France has PSG, St Etienne and Marseilles. The make up of the last 16 is healthily spread around the continent in the form of Braga (Portugal), Aalborg (Denmark), Galtasaray (Turkey) and Ajax (Holland).

Compare that with the last 16 of the Champions League, which featured four clubs from both England and Spain, three from Italy, two from Portugal, and one each from Germany, Greece and France. That list has now been reduced to four from England, two from Spain and one each from Germany and Portugal.

So is the gulf between the creme de la creme and the rest in Europe’s “best leagues” even bigger than we thought? Have they got strength in depth or is it just a case of super-club dominance? Perhaps “best” really means least competitive, with leagues in Germany, France, Portugal, Russia and the Ukraine appearing to have a much healthier balance about them.

Athletic Bilbao will play Barcelona in this year’s Spanish Cup final. The club known as “The Lions” ripped Sevilla apart with three first half goals in San Mamés, comfortably overcoming the 2-1 deficit from the first leg. This will be Athletic’s first Spanish Cup final since 1984. It’s an admirable achievement when you consider they only select players with Basque connections, while all other Spanish first division clubs have the luxury of worldwide resources. Athletic’s cantera policy remains controversial and an anomoly in the modern game. But they are a big club with a passionate support and they should contribute a lot towards a potentially exciting final against Barça in Valencia.

This docu-fiction was first screened by the BBC in The Wednesday Play series in 1968. As an fan of both football history and Ken Loach's work, I'm surprised I've never heard of it till now. The drama revolves around Everton FC and includes real footage and interviews. The title refers to the Midlothian-born footballer, Alex Young, who was known as The Golden Vision.

Here's the opening section. Catch the entire screenplay on YouTube.

Stranraer chairman Neil Redhead rates his club's chances of surviving beyond this season as about 50/50. Stranraer lost 8-2 at home today. Such results are unlikely to help their gates. Redhead cites another major problem: "I think you've got so much football on the television that people don't want to come out and watch our type of football."

Will Stranraer become the second borders club in a year to go out of business? One thing is certain; it's not only Scottish clubs that are suffering as a result of locals thinking their time and money is better spent elsewhere.

Albacete, a struggling Spanish second division club were in the top flight just a few seasons ago but gates have dropped to less than five thousand. This despite prices being dropped to between €3 and €8 per game. Very reasonable you would think when it costs €18 to see a bullfight, €15 to go to the theatre, €6.60 for the cinema and even a swim can be more exepensive at €3.70.

Albacete are trying to attract fans back in order to avoid slipping out of the professional ranks.

Do you love your local club enough to support them through thick and thin come rain or shine? If not, would cheaper pricing entice you back?

Albacete info translated and adapted from Marca, 16th April, 2008